Former Bernie Press Secretary Accuses Biden of Using ‘Faulty’ Student-Loan Forgiveness Order for Votes

Briahna Joy Gray, who previously served as a press secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, on Friday claimed President Biden baited young voters with a “faulty” student-loan forgiveness order.

“They used the promise of student debt cancellation to induce young voter turn out — knowing it wasn’t going anywhere bc they relied on faulty legal authority,” she wrote in a tweet. “Hard to convince me the Biden admin didn’t do this intentionally.”

A federal judge in Texas on Thursday blocked Biden’s student-loan “forgiveness” plan in response to a lawsuit from the Job Creators Network Foundation (JCNF).

The conservative advocacy group filed a suit in October arguing that the Biden administration violated federal procedures by not allowing borrowers to provide public comment before the program was unveiled.

Judge Mark Pittman of the Northern District of Texas called the plan an “unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power” and noted the program failed to go through standard regulatory processes.

“No one can plausibly deny that it is either one of the largest delegations of legislative power to the executive branch, or one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States,” Pittman wrote in a 26-page opinion.

Last month, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the student loan “forgiveness” plan. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted an administrative stay in response to a challenge to the order by a coalition of six Republican-led states.

Biden planned to “forgive” up to $10,000 in federal student debt for those making under $125,000 annually and households making under $250,000, as well as relieving $20,000 in debt for Pell grant recipients. The executive action would transfer the cost of the loans to the American public.

JCNF sued on behalf of two borrowers, one who had private student loans that were ineligible for the “forgiveness” and the other who wasn’t a recipient of a Pell Grant and therefore didn’t qualify for an extra $10,000 in forgiveness. Pittman found that the plaintiffs had not been allowed to voice their disagreement with the specifics of the program under the usual regulatory process.

On Friday, Gray shared a video of her saying: “[Biden] could’ve immediately canceled student debt instead of making it a means tested program, in which case there wouldn’t have been these opportunities for people to obstruct.”

In December 2021 she claimed in a series of tweets that Biden “absolutely does have the power to cancel all student debt by executive order. No congressional involvement required.”

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